Freezing in Florida

Actually, this isn’t about the weather. We hardly ever freeze in Florida. This is about a freezer.

I’m thinking of getting a small freezer. The freezer that comes with my fridge is pretty small. My fridge is pretty small, because my kitchen is pretty small. Anyway, my freezer is just about full, and I don’t really have that much in there. I have two servings of chicken, one loaf of bread, one package of pita bread, one frozen pizza, two boxes of pancake mix, one package of brussels sprouts, and a lot of ice.

I need more of these

I keep ice in Gladware-type containers with lids, and in quart-sized freezer bags. The ice never shrinks, because it’s not exposed to air, and the bags and containers stack easily. It’s a good source of ice and of clean drinking water in an emergency. I’d like to have more, but I don’t have room. If I had a separate freezer, I could keep quite a bit more ice. Then, when a storm is on the way, I won’t be at the grocery store fighting with other customers over the last few bags of ice.

I could also have more ice cubes. I have one tray in there now, but I don’t have room for more. My fridge doesn’t have an ice maker; my kitchen isn’t plumbed for it. I don’t use ice cubes very often, but when I need to, I usually don’t have enough. If I had a separate freezer, I could keep all of my ice cube trays filled and ready to use.

I also don’t have room to stock up on frozen items to any extent. If I had a separate freezer, I could take more advantage of sales. Also, if my garden is a raging success, I’ll need more room to freeze all of the extra bounty from it.

I would also like to do some “freezer cooking,” where I would make a big pan or pot of something, for instance chili or lasagna, and freeze it in individual servings. Then it’s available when I need something quick or just don’t want to cook. If I had a separate freezer, I could do much more of that.

Those are all the pros in the argument. I do have room for it. I wouldn’t keep it in the garage, because it’s too hot in there most of the year, but I have a place in the TV room that is right next to the door to the kitchen, inside the air-conditioned house, that would be just right.

The cons are the initial cost and the electricity needed to run it. I know it would add a few dollars to my power bill every month. Lowes only has one Energy Star model, and it’s nearly $400. It also might be too big for my needs. There are small ones that start at $199. I don’t know how one of those would compare to the Energy Star one – since it’s considerably smaller, it should take less power to run than a larger one, so it would probably even out. I don’t want to get a larger freezer than I need. I’m not going to be freezing any sides of beef or venison. The lower cost of the smaller model would also mean that I’d recoup the cost in food savings much more quickly.

These are the things I’m thinking about. The next time I’m at Lowes, I’ll look at them and see if they have the estimated cost of running them posted on those big yellow tags. Then I’ll think about it some more. I have two weeks off over Christmas, so if I do get one, that would be the ideal time to do so, and to get it all filled up.